The SA Post Office was placed under provisional liquidation on February 9 following a successful court application by a creditor owed money for rent.
Two provisional liquidators were appointed by the high court in Pretoria on March 23 and last week they received the certificate of appointment, which Business Day has seen.
The provisional liquidators are Anton Shaban and Hlamalane Jerry Musi.
The technically insolvent Post Office has lost money every year since 2013 and has been forced to close branches all over the country. Creditors have been knocking at its door and in February it announced a plan to cut 6,000 jobs, which it later reduced to 3,000.
According to its most recent financial statements for the 2021/22 year to end-March 2022, it owed more than R4.4bn to creditors and its debt exceeded its assets by R4bn. It received a R2.4bn bailout from the National Treasury in the budget announced in February.
An application for provisional liquidation is often used as a means to get payment by a creditor. Shaban said the application for the provisional liquidation was made by property company Bay City Trading 475 for unpaid rent, with the amount owed
not disclosed.
Provisional liquidators safeguard a firm, contact creditors, establish what is owed and try to collect outstanding debt, while payments to creditors are also halted. In order to determine a list of assets and debt, the provisional liquidators will need to meet with Post Office management, which Business Day understands has not yet happened.
The story came to light last week when a photograph of a letter sent to creditors and interested parties by the provisional liquidators was shared on social media.
The SA Post Office spokesperson Suzie Khumalo declined to comment in detail, saying it would issue a statement this week.
Shaban said: “Provisional liquidators are in essence court-appointed caretakers. Our job is to ascertain, maintain and protect the assets of the provisionally liquidated entity, in this instance the Post Office, until the appointments of liquidators are made final.”
He said the case would return to court on June 1.
If no-one approaches the court by that date, the liquidation will be made final.
However, other firms owed money by the Post Office could approach the court and oppose the state-owned enterprise being liquidated.
The Post Office’s response to Business Day appears to suggest they do not intend to allow a full liquidation to happen.
“We have been dealing with such matters for a while now. We have been able to resolve matters between the parties. We have no reason to believe that this one would be any different.”
The provisional liquidation is the latest in a number of woes befalling the Post Office. Its medical scheme Medipos was placed under provisional curatorship in February.
The Post office owes it almost R700m in contributions for its employees. With Tauriq Moosa and Linda Ensor
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